V-Flyer

Yesterday before the strike was declared. VS 31 to St Lucia on 25th Dec was showing 9's in nearly all classes. OH! look what has happened now. J9 D0 R0 Z0 W9 S0 K0 Y2 B0 L0 M0 Q0 X0 N0

There are nearly as many seats but only the highest Class in each cabin

I wonder why ???????

Virgin topping the funds at BA's stranded passengers expense, Not good !!![V]

Or could it be that people have booked the tickets?

Tried to book some flights to MCO mid-ish feb - according to Premier, most are showing 98 - 99% full, with only an odd seat available from both LGW and MAN

quote:Originally posted by David
Tried to book some flights to MCO mid-ish feb - according to Premium, most are showing 98 - 99% full, with only an odd seat available from both LGW and MAN


UK half term week is always busy for MCO though, so nothing really unusual there I wouldn't imagine, and probably not directly as a knock on effect of the BA strike.

Like Inkiboo has said, I imagine as soon as BA announced the strikes the seats on all other airlines for around the Xmas period would have started selling like hot cakes, so I don't think it is just VS profiteering on the situation and selling all seats at the high bucket levels.

I know this from experience, we are a Japan specialist and as soon as we got this news we started to hold seats on the other airlines for customers who are affected. We can usually hold these for 3 days with no obligation so as soon as more information comes through from BA we are in a much better position to be able to offer an alternative to our customer.
Because agents are doing this, even if BA pax aren't booking the seats for themselves we are snapping up all flights we can and availablity has vanished completely in the last 24 hours.

All of the discounted PE and Upper fares come with advance purchase restrictions (generally either 42 for Upper or 21 days for PE) and as we are now less than 21 days away from Christmas/New Year none of the discounted fares will be available (and haven't been for at least a week)

There's only economy fares which generally don't come with advance purchase rules.

My SFO VS flights are currently showing:

Dec 30 J9 D0 R0 Z0 W3 S0 K0 Y0 B0 L0 M0 Q0 X0 N0
Jan 03 J9 D0 R0 Z0 W3 S0 K0 Y0 B0 L0 M0 Q0 X0 N0

This has changed since yesterday morning, although both flights where nearly full before anyway.

The seats maps don't looked to have changed much so it's probably down to TA's grabbing fares as mentioned above.

Regards

Also, remember the booking system takes account of the number of 'requests' so all those journalists going on line to 'book' a ticket would create a situation where the system will automatically work on the basis that only the most expensive seats are available

buns

I see a press release has announced that routes to New York, Washington and Boston are going to switch to a A340-600, rather than a A340-300 adding seats. Where are the spare A340-600 coming from does virgin have a lot of parked aircraft during the peek christmas period it is now going to use, or will other nearly full flights be getting a smaller plane unexpectedly and have to bump.

They will either switch around aircraft or pull VGOA back from Lourdes

I imagine they will just switch a/c around. There are certain routes/flights which they know won't be very full so will switch them to the A343 and move the A346 or even some of the 747's on to the routes/flights where there will be the highest demand (NYC etc).

quote:Originally posted by kensteve

Virgin topping the funds at BA's stranded passengers expense, Not good !!![V]


What, you mean the passengers that didn't give VS their business in the first place? With the greatest of respect to the unfortunate passengers of BA this festive season, what do VS really owe them??


Regards

NOC

As least VS arn't closing their remaining discounted fare buckets, unlike BMI:

quote:BD 587 0 MAN
30/12/09 11:00 LHR
30/12/09 12:05 319
YC O9 S9 BC KC MC HC QC VC WC GC TC NC EC XC

...which is contrary to what BMI's newspaper adverts are currently saying!! Most MAN>LHR flights showing this over those 12 days.

I don't need to book, but you are currently struggling to get a one-way domestic flight on BMI for under 181 within that 12 day period [:0]

Regards

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
They will either switch around aircraft or pull VGOA back from Lourdes

There may even be a few wet leases (but ex-CC) available over Christmas.[}:)]
Perhaps even some temporarily free CC who might assist [:w]
Doubt they would have time to do a thorough paint job though.[ii][ii]

I've just been looking online at my economy booking to Orlando on the 6th Jan and I can now upgrade both ways to PE for 1252 (was 541 last week) or to UC for only 3249 (was around 1200-1300).
Considering it's outside of trhe strike dates, there's either been a knock on effect here or for standard operational reasons?

quote:Originally posted by xenole
Considering it's outside of trhe strike dates, there's either been a knock on effect here or for standard operational reasons?



As Mitchja has said above, the cheaper fare buckets in PE & UC have advance purchase restrictions, and both are now under the minimum before your flight, so it will be only offering the higher fare buckets.

quote:Originally posted by kensteve
Virgin topping the funds at BA's stranded passengers expense, Not good !!![V]



Why is it OK for Ryanair and Easyjet(or BMI or any of the other carriers) to operate the model of book early and get cheap seats or book at the last minute and get charged an arm and a leg but not for VS who are simply following their normal business model?

Surely the closer to the flight time the availabilty of the cheaper seats is limited. This is the budget airline model everyone (normally) thinks is great!

Now as the strike seems to be dead in the water for now will we see some of those higher fare buckets open up as people/companies turn in the refundable tickets ?

And won't they be surprised when it takes 2-3 months to get the refund [}:)]

Look what's happened the cheap seats are back J9 D9 R9 Z8 W9 S9 K9 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 i wonder why ????

Yep I concur, had a look at the PVG flights a few days back, only availability in J, W, S and Y. Now it's 9s across the board.